topic Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another, in ArcGIS Enterprise Questions

The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

JamalNUMAN — Sat, 14 Jan 2017 21:23:53 GMT

The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

In case of failure, what might be the best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data (published services including the cached) from one machine to another? I’m aware that the ArcGIS Server is housed in arcgisserver by default in the C:\ drive. Is all what I need is to install the ArcGIS Server in the destination machine and just replacing the new arcgisserver with the old one? Does the ArcGIS Server recognize the published services of old machines in the new one right away?

The ArcGIS preserves a copy of the mxd in the folder below

C:\arcgisserver\directories\arcgissystem\arcgisinput\XXXX\extracted\v101

Thank you

Best

Jamal

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

JordanPorter — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 20:20:29 GMT

Hi Jamal,

Did you ever resolve this? I am about to start attempting this same thing.

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

Juan_ManuelAngel — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 20:25:28 GMT

Jamal i think the best practice is get a backup, then install a new site of the ArcGIS Server and in that new machine restore the back up, then manually copy and paste the caches, i hope this will help you or if you have information share it please.

this will help you Migration checklist—Documentation | ArcGIS Enterprise

Thank You.

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

RebeccaStrauch__GISP — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 20:40:59 GMT

Take a look at this thread

https://community.esri.com/message/316167

I have had luck transferring services using the tool they mention that is on github. I actually copy the .mxd and actual data and cache directories over first (using windows explorer or other OS tools), but then have success with the transfer services tool. I've modified it some for our internal use, but it worked pretty much right away.

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

AhmadSALEH1 — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 06:57:25 GMT

Hi Juan,

I tried this before, it seems a good tool to restore the site, but I think that the data source and mxds and the cache should be manually copied before restoring the site , also do you this that this tool can be trusted in case of system failure and after format?.

Thanks,

Ahmad

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

AhmadSALEH1 — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 06:59:43 GMT

Hi Rebecca,

Suppose that your server A was suddenly down and you need to move the last version of your Arcgisserver to Server B. I think this tool fails to do this.

Thanks

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

RebeccaStrauch__GISP — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 16:43:12 GMT

correct. This expects that both machines and AGS software are up and running. This is more for moving to a new machine or from staging/development to staging.

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

JamalNUMAN — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 19:44:54 GMT

I’m not sure why this shouldn’t be as easy as copying the C:\arcgisserver for the first machine to the second! Why this might not work?

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

JonathanQuinn — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 16:55:05 GMT

There are a lot of places within the config-store and directories that store values specific to the machine it's on, (machine name, file paths, etc). You'll likely run into more problems with the machine name that's stored within the config-store and possibly directories than file paths, assuming all file paths are accessible on the second site. Note that updating files manually within the config-store or directories is not supported and not recommended.

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

JamalNUMAN — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 22:38:06 GMT

Does this mean that there is no way to backup the services including the cached ones to be able to transfer them to another machine or even to restore them to the same machine (after being formatted) in case of failure

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

RebeccaStrauch__GISP — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 23:37:26 GMT

Jamal,

Other than normal IT/network best practices for backup and restore of servers, I don't know that you would want to backup the caches, data, etc with any tools that are available with server....the backups could potentially be so big they are not practical. It think some of that should be done, again, as a server admin task, not as an ArcGIS Server task.

With that said, there is a topic about backing up the config etc.

Back up and restore your ArcGIS Server site configuration—ArcGIS Server Administration (Windows) | ArcGIS Enterprise

As JQuinn-esristaff mentioned, you might run into other problems if trying to restore on a machine with a different name or a different configuration. However, I think with a combination of the config backup, a IT/server backup and possibly the tools of transferring from another machine (assuming there is one running that is working), you could probably get things to run.

I don't think you will find a simple, one-button solution to what you are asking. But if you have a backup of the cache, it is not hard to restore that and get it to work. We create all our cahes on a EDN licensed development machine. We create (or I might now use the transfer service tool) the service on production, and I can just copy the cache over and turn the "cache" option on. Works just find. Not a simple backup and restore, but a simple copy and turn-on. For what it's worth.

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

JonathanQuinn — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 00:53:03 GMT

Jamal, it is definitely possible to take a backup of a machine using the exportSite resource within the Server Admin API or the tool Rebecca Strauch, GISP‌ mentioned and then restore the backup using the importSite resource within the Server Admin API or again, the tool described. This will restore the site to it's original state when the backup was taken. Take note of what's not included when backing up a site, (cache, your own data, etc), which means those items won't be restored by Server, so it's up to you to make sure those things are in order. The backup/restore utilities were not designed for "cloning" or "migration", meaning moving from one machine to another. Many organizations use a combination of ArcGIS Server tools, (backup/restore methods discussed above), file system backup tools, database backup tools, and VM backup tools, (ex snapshots), to guard against data loss and downtime.

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

MajdoleenO_A__Awadallah — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 09:26:50 GMT

Thank you so much Jonathan Quinn, your suggestion is very helpful, but unfortunately, I observed the following:

Warning messages as shown.

2. Most of the services are stopped, and if we restart them manually, we will get the error attached. (overwrite publish will resolve the issue)(attached)

3. Despite the fact that the data shared folder is registered to my ArcGIS server, the services don't appear. Attached (overwrite publish resolved this issue)

4. What about the automatically backup? Export site using Python/ task schedule or something like that? Any suggestion?

Best,

Majdoleen

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

JonathanQuinn — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 16:08:02 GMT

Did you restore the backup to the same machine that you took the backup from? I assume the version is the same between the source and the target as well? Can you publish a new image service with the same data?

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

MajdoleenO_A__Awadallah — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 09:07:39 GMT

Hi Jonathan Quinn,

I tried to restore the backup to different machine.

Yes, we can publish a new image service with the same data, and as I mentioned before, the overwrite publish resolved my issue.

What do you think?

Thank you

Best,

Majdoleen

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

JonathanQuinn — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 19:53:10 GMT

Backup/restore is not meant to move data, services, or configurations between machines. If you need to move services from one machine to another, you can go through the following:

1) Move the config-store and directories to a shared location using the Admin API

2) Install Server on the new machine

3) Join the new Server to the existing site

4) Remove the old machine from the site.

5) Set the config-store and directories back to a local drive on the machine or wherever they were initially.

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

MajdoleenO_A__Awadallah — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 06:15:28 GMT

Thank you Jonathan Quinn ,

In case of formatting my server, do you suggest that we need to use (export/ import Site), and set the config-store and directories to the network folder for example? And in case of caching folder, for sure we need to copy the cache.

But despite the fact the we didn’t move the config-store and directories when using import site on the second server, most of the services are returned to work.

What do you think?

Best,

Majdoleen

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

JoeWeyl — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 15:02:46 GMT

Jonathan -

Since using ArcGIS Server Manager or the Admin API can take hours (I just recently had it take a full weekend over the 4th holiday to move my config store and server directories), I am wondering is Esri is working on a better approach? Think about it, there are technologies, that if Server worked with them better, could speed up this process. Robocopy can be used in Windows for example, and then a direct way to edit the underlying configuration files would be a huge time saver for the user community. I have been recommending this since 10.1 but it doesn't seem to ever get any traction. I am not suggesting ArcGIS Server admins do something unsupported by Esri, instead I am just asking Esri to think outside the box as it were. I know because I have done this in a development environment that there are unsupported ways to do this faster.

Joe

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

JoeWeyl — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 17:09:25 GMT

Just dawned on me why the Manger and API have to do this work for the users, there are too many underlying files underneath the Services that that have the path in them in the configure-store and ArcGIS server directories. All the json and xml files need to be updated.

Still a utility to make this work go faster would be great.

Re: The best practice to transfer the ArcGIS Server data from one machine to another,

JonathanQuinn — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:32:37 GMT

Majdoleen Awadallah‌, the problem with export/import is that it was never designed to work as a migration tool. You can give it a try and it may work for you, but take note that it's not something we test internally so there may be unforeseen side effects. The workflow I outlined is using processes already well in use for an ArcGIS Server site, (moving directories, joining, unjoining).

Joe Weyl, migration is something we're focusing on for future releases. We realize there are a lot of times things that are currently hard coded within the software can change, (machine names, URLs, etc), so we are discussing designs for what the user experience will be like for those workflows.